I definitely think the alkalinity is the issue. I'm going to get a mineral report next week and treat accordingly, I brewed the same beer with 2 gals tap water, 3 gals filtered drinking water today. Interested to see how they differ.

This will sound weird, but I think the creator of the beer on the left once had his heart broken by a girl named Ashley West, so his revenge was to call a beer West Ashley and put a picture of a bridge opening up and a ship entering to symbolise her infidelity.

If I got a rare barrel bottle I'd probably want something more special than typical regional stuff since I would have to drive out to Berkeley to get it. I'm not super familiar with the "specialties" of the area so can you make me a few propositions? We like sours, stouts, IPAs.

I've had a lot of beer from there that I think was good, though none that blew me away or made me want to return specifically for THAT beer (Half Acre's Space is one I go out of my way for, for example). I definitely don't find most of them bland, just none that knock it out of the park.

Angry Samoan, a coconut milk stout was a good one, and there's nothing similar in the area. The Devil Jumped Up was a good 7.8% Belgian IPA, and Satanico Pandemonium a solid saison. Part of the issue is that they experiment so much and really don't have a large standing beer menu like some of the bigger brewers in Chicago. I don't even know if any of the beers I mentioned are currently available, which makes Dryhop kind of hit or miss in my book.

I forgot about angry Samoan. That beer was actually very good. I think I actually
Agree with your overall sentiment. They could benefit from committing to 3-4 flagship beers and really dialing those beers in on their system. That could do a lot for them. They're so close to my apartment, I wish I were drawn to get a couple growler fills each weekend. But I honestly prefer to go a bit farther north to fill at Half Acre.

I caught a lot of shit for saying this a couple of months ago. Apparently, people with this criticism just don't have the super cicerone palette that can appreciate the subtlety of DryHop's process and ingredients.

The Holy Grail, Bourbon County Brand Stout comes out soon - get in line at a Binny's, or somewhere, early on Black Friday.

Deth's Tar by Revolution (stout in bourbon barrels) is available now. Also Gravedigger Billy (as mentioned below, a scotch ale in bourbon barrels). I really enjoyed Gravedigger Billy! Personally I like it more than Backwoods.

New Holland Dragon's Milk (stout in bourbon barrels) is amazing and available at pretty much anywhere.

In the coming months Revolution will also release Straight Jacket and Very Mad Cow (Barleywine and Milk Stout, respectively, both aged in bourbon barrels).

I don't see why that would be shocking. It makes perfect sense that vegans wouldn't support farmers raising cattle. There were several other breweries in the article that said they dump their grain, so I'm not sure people are jumping on Metropolitan.

While I agree with the overall whackness of veganism, shitting on Metro is uncalled for. Krankshaft, Zwickel Flywheel, and Afterburner are solid beers and deserve some respect. I'll take a well made lager over a janky adjunct-laden ale any day.